G’s Travel Notes #1

It’s never simple, even on our eleventh trip.  It took us about 24 hours to make it to N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, from when we departed Los Angeles.  We travel heavy, bringing all kinds of communications equipment, educational material, and sports stuff.
 
After the ten hour flight to Europe, I was looking forward to jumping on the internet during our layover time at the Paris airport, but the network did not work.  After another six hours in the air, we land in N’Djamena and the excitement of making it out of the airport and finding taxis.  It’s always surprising that the old cars make it to their destination.  They sure do shake, rattle, and slowly roll. Now at the hotel, and the wifi that is so nicely advertised on their website does not work, so I’m having to connect through our own equipment, which costs us for usage.
 
Tomorrow, we hit the road early.  We’ll head out to the UNHCR offices and look at how our permits are doing.  We need to get a stamp from the police station, a permit to travel out of the capital and to the east, and another permit to use cameras.  Ideally, on Thursday morning we fly out to the east — hopefully making it all the way to Kou Kou, the village close to the first camp we’ll be visiting, Goz Amer.
 
There are usually quite a few “adventures” along the way.  Navigating Chad offers all kinds of surprises, most of them not fun, at every corner.
 
It is now almost 1am here in Chad.  We’ll see how the jetlag hits this time.  For now, I need a shower.
 
Peace,
G